God won't stop until you are fully freed. - Brave, Blessed, and Beautiful

Good Morning Gorgeous,
It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. The Lord has been faithful to cause the sun to rise again. He is consistently able to bring light to the darkness. He is also able to deliver you in a way that is best for you. He will deliver you in a way that you are able to be richly blessed. His delivering Hand often looks different than the deliverance you have imagined. He also usually delivers us on a different timeline than we imagine or hope for. However, He has a bigger picture in mind. Being an all knowing God, He delivers you in a way that has your future in mind and the future generations to come after you in mind. This means sometimes our deliverance comes after a season of darkness that we think should have ended long ago.

I am still reading Exodus. I am riveted by this story of release from slavery. From the moment when the Lord decided to act and He called Moses all the way until the deliverance into the promised land, we can pull parallels to our own deliverance stories and gain hope for own freedom journey. God is still a God of deliverance. He still sets people, families, and nations free. He is a chain breaker, a freedom giver, and a deliverer into promise. He will be faithful to break your chains, walk with you in the wilderness while you find the way, and deliver you out and into your God given destiny and purposes.

Before He completely releases you, He will usually set some things in order for you. He will plan for your release and order the steps of your future, and even prepare your provision as you shake free from something that has held you back.

This is exactly what jumped off of the pages at me this morning. There are so many stories of the bible that I admittedly would brush through quickly because “I already knew that one.” Yet, God is slowing me down now. He is causing me to read with fresh insight and training me through Holy Spirit to dine on His words slowly allowing them to digest a little before I rush onto the next one.

In this portion of Exodus, God has assigned Moses and Aaron to speak to the Pharoah on behalf of the Israelites. He has instructed them to work signs and wonders and convince Pharoah to release the people of God to the purposes of God. They are asking for release to go on a 3 day journey to worship their God. Pharoah plays a wicked back and forth game where he says yes, and then changes his mind and says no. This continues for 10 mighty acts of God that get progressively worse for the Egyptians. Each time Pharoah says no, the people cannot leave, God sends a new disaster. Their water turns to blood, frogs invade, gnats swarm up from the ground, flies come, darkness covers everything. Each time as you think surely,” Pharoah will release the people now!” , it gets worse and worse and Pharoah keeps saying no to the full release of the Israelites.

There are many layers to the reasons why it took 10 disasters before Pharoah finally caved, but this morning I caught a glimpse of God’s heart as I read this story. He was working out the FULL release of the Israelites!!!

Pharoah continually refuses to release them again and again. Then, he turns slightly and agrees to just release the men to go and worship God. This was not a total release, so the plagues and disasters continued and the slavery of the Israelites also continued. God was not stopping until they were fully freed.

Pharaoh relented once more and agreed to release the men AND the women and children, but not any of their livestock.
They couldn’t very well be released without their livelihood, their means of worship and eating, so that wasn’t really freedom at all. God was not stopping until they were fully freed.

A final deadly disaster and this brings total freedom for the men, women, children, AND livestock! God was not stopping until they were fully freed.

He was not going to compromise, and give them partial freedom. He fought the battle with the Pharoah until His people could be TRULY and FULLY free. He was not accepting anything less!!!

But God is a God of abundance, and He not only frees them from the harsh clutches of slavery, releases all of the people and animals, BUT he also softens the hearts of the Egyptian people so that before the Israelites leave they are given loads of valuables of silver and gold!!! What?!

The same oppressive slaveowners are now blessing them and sending them away rich and full!!! BUT GOD!

Gorgeous girl,
Our God is so concerned about every single detail that He will work out your freedom walk into 2019 so that you are completely free of everything you need to release. He will also be sure that you take along the things that need to stay with you. Releasing you from the burdens that need to go, and guarding the things that are precious and valuable. Another constant in this story of the Israelites and their Exodus from Egypt is their constant communication with God for their next step. After each rejection from the Pharoah, Moses and Aaron returned to God in prayer. Recognizing that even in the midst of this oppression and what seems to be impossible, God is there and in complete control. He is working things out on their behalf so that they would leave Egypt with full freedom, guarding their closest family members, while also carrying out abundant treasures and wealth. God loves you, and He completely cares about every detail of the fabric of your life. Lean into Him, and trust that He will direct your paths right into your promised land.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for these beautiful reminders in Your Word! That You completely care for Your people. That we can lean into You even through disappointments and percieved roadblocks. Help us to have faith during our struggles to remember that You are often working things out to be even better we can possibly imagine.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.